


After the End

by LadyNovaJade



Series: Alternate Universe [6]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, And some bad language, Angst, Anxiety, F/M, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Panic Attacks, Romance, Slow Burn, Team Building, Trust Issues, but there's making out, family stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-29 08:28:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11437029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyNovaJade/pseuds/LadyNovaJade
Summary: A murderous robot is dead and the world goes on. And Toni has to come to grips with everything that has changed.





	After the End

**Author's Note:**

> This wasn't supposed to be so long. But Toni and Steve ran with it, I just followed.

It was weird.

Maybe not weird. Sad was possibly a better description.

Okay, so it was really freaking depressing if she were to be honest and she absolutely hated it. The longer Toni stood in the space, turning around like a little lost child, the more she berated herself.

It was just a lab, after all. A space filled with scientific equipment and tablets lying about. Pencils and pens scattered. Empty mugs and boxes of herbal teas. A weathered case for his stupid glasses.

Pieces of paper with his shitty-ass handwriting scribbled all over it. Notes about formulas and possible equations to double check. Reminders of meetings and lunches with other members of the team. Scribbles of things he remembered when he was the big green guy.

There also were colorful sticky notes around he had kept from Toni — ones where she wrote a dumbass phrase in permanent marker to keep his spirits up, others with a bit harsher language, still more with jokes. He’d kept them all; even put pieces of tape over them to keep them from falling to the floor and getting lost.

Never had a lab so full of stuff made Toni want to cry. But looking around the large spot she had opened to Bruce to fill to his heart’s content, it seemed so goddamn empty, her heart felt broken.

“Seriously, what the fuck, Banner?” she asked out loud, not wanting an answer really. She just wanted Bruce to walk through the door and ask her what she was doing, followed by a stern statement of “You better not have touched anything.”

Toni had started crying — something that had become a norm since the final battle at Sokovia — but she didn’t bother to hastily wipe away the tears. No one was around to see her. Clint had went home. Nat was MIA. Thor was running around “gathering clues to possibly explain the disturbing events which have been occurring on Midgard.” Steve was playing poster boy. And Bruce … Bruce was …

_Gone. Just like people tend to do around you, Toni. They just leave._

She scoffed aloud, though again, there was no one the fuck around. _Why did that bug her so much?_ If anyone in the world was used to being on her own, it was Toni Stark. She was a freakin’ expert at it. Hell, most times, she sought out solitude.

Why had that suddenly changed? It wasn’t as if things weren’t completely different enough after Ultron. Between everyone acting odd and the fact she was crying over everything from Amazon commercials to Steve bringing her things she either randomly said she wanted or he guessed on his own that she needed … Toni felt like every day the world was spinning on some new course of unfamiliarity that made her chest clench.

Part of it was bearable — almostly immensely comfortable. Those times were because of Steve. He had been working hard — between meeting with Fury on a possible new organization headed up by the Avengers and addressing clean up at Sokovia — to make sure he was there for Toni, in whatever way she needed.

She had never been in a relationship where someone worked to take care of her. Sure Rhodey checked in from time to time. Pepper yelled at her, which came from a place of love. They were family.

But a romantic relationship? Where someone was sharing your space and your food? Someone who woke up with you in the morning and stared at you from across the table like they didn’t only know your body like the back of their hand, but your mind too? Yeah, that was different.

With Steve, he never missed a beat. She found sometimes that meant getting her coffee in the mornings and making her eat a decent meal. Other times it was holding her when the nightmares came. Or just giving her so many orgasms, she forgot about the world except him.

The other part of the post-Ultron world, the part where Bruce was gone? It fucking sucked. It tore Toni up, made her feel incapable of continuing on in Avengers Tower because every time she’d look over her shoulder, she’d expect to see him there. And every time the realization hit that he wasn’t, she’d run out as if her ass was on fire to avoid having a damn panic attack.

Seriously, what was the fucking universe thinking when panic attacks were created? Toni had researched one day on a whim and came up with “high-functioning anxiety” as a result to her “symptoms.” She’d immediately closed her laptop with a scoff. She didn’t take it seriously until two days later when, for some reason, her brain went on vacation and she told Steve what she found.

They had been eating — some take out he’d picked up after leaving a debriefing — and Steve nodded along as she spoke. “I found something similar online,” he said around a mouth full of lo mein. “I think it’s spot on you.”

“Wait, you’d been researching possible psychological disorders I might have?” Toni asked a little indignantly.

Steve rolled his eyes, “I was researching ways to help you keep panic attacks at bay.”

That hit her right in the feels. When she didn’t respond, he started to ramble; about how he’d found ways for her to mediate or other things like “mindfulness” which would have her concentrate on her breathing, or good activities that could keep her mind busy in a positive way (that was the point he threw out going to the gym together, yuck). It was so fucking sweet and lovely and endearing, Toni stood up, plopped herself in his lap, and kissed the hell out of him.

But as amazing as Steve was … he wasn’t there all the time. And those were the times Toni found her feet taking her to Bruce’s lab, where she would stand aimlessly, cataloguing every bit of it. All of it made her feel his absence more keenly. She’d never had anyone like Bruce in her life before — someone who was a scientist as well. Someone who, after a bit of prodding, was willing to try experiments no one else would broach with her.

Toni realized in the days without him that she loved Bruce, in a way. Of course, what she felt was not anything like what she felt for Steve — white hot, all consuming feelings that made her tingle from head to toe. It wasn’t any less deeper, she found, just different.

It took a while, but Toni wiped away her tears and made herself focus on the task she had originally come into the room to do — dismantle the lab or leave it as it was.

Her rational brain told her to get over herself; it was just a fucking room. It wasn’t Bruce. Keeping it the same didn’t mean he was going to come back any sooner. It would help her remember him, yes, but at the same time it would provide a hard reminder that he wasn’t around.

But her heart rebelled, of course. It whined that it was wrong to dismantle the lab. It was Bruce’s. Just standing in it and looking around already made her think he was close, didn’t it? So what if it hurt like hell — the pain reminded her he was real. That he could come back. And pain she was used to; it was something she knew how to handle. She knew how to keep heartache close, wrapping herself around it and finding an odd warmth in its presence. Airing it out by dealing with it wasn’t exactly her style.

Still … whether by Steve’s presence or something all together too new to name, Toni knew it would be better to move on with life. To let Bruce go, in a way. It wouldn’t be completely forgetting him and it could help her learn how to deal with the feelings head on instead of shutting them out.

That’s what Steve had been preaching to her all along, anyway. About not bottling it up, about trust…

It was hard though. And she hated the sick twist of her stomach as she reached for a stack of papers on a table…

“Toni?”

She whirled at the sound of Steve’s voice next to her, eyes going wide. God, she hoped she wasn’t splotchy from the crying.

“Hey,” he said, squinting his eyes a bit in that assessing manner of his. “You okay?”

“Of course I’m okay, why wouldn’t I be?” Toni said quickly, beginning to stack papers together. “You shouldn’t squint your eyes like that, old man. You’re going to need bifocals.”

They both knew his vision was perfect. Just like the rest of him.

“I’ve been in here for five minutes, and you’re just now noticing,” Steve said softly in response, ignoring the quip about his sight. He was getting good at that too, not taking her bait anymore. “What’s wrong?”

She swallowed hard, shaking her head — at herself or as a response to him, she wasn’t sure. “I was running numbers through my head, you know how I am. Does there seem like something’s wrong?” she asked, hoping the deflection would aid her in some way.

Of course it wouldn’t. Steve gently took her shoulders, causing her to stop her stacking and turn to face him. “Honey, talk to me,” he said softly, though there was a little hint of a command there.

Toni drew in a long, deep breath before she let her shoulders slump. “It’s just Bruce being gone … I’m trying to decide if I should leave it the same or break it down,” she answered quietly, her gaze focusing on a spot on the blue Henley he wore. It was almost the color of his eyes...

His hands slipped from her shoulders and comfortably rubbed her arms, “What do you feel is the best thing?”

She pursed her lips, “My brain says it’s stupid to keep the reminder because it keeps upsetting me.” Her words came to a halt as the tears pricked again and her throat closed up.

Steve seemed to understand what her next statement would be. “But your heart wants to keep the memory?”

Toni sniffled and nodded, taking the moment to wipe a hand across her face. “Which is dumb. My heart can’t fucking think. It’s an organ, it pumps blood through my body. It doesn’t do anything but that, that’s it’s one job.”

She heard him chuckle lightly as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in for a hug, “But it’s nice to think the feelings are separate, right?” he asked, his warm palms running up and down the plane of her back.

Toni wasn’t sure how he did it, but one phrase, one simplification made her feel a little less frantic. “I wish I could figure out a way to shut that part of my brain off,” she mumbled, burrowing against his chest more.

Steve kissed the top of her head, “That’d be the easy way out, kid.”

Yeah, and it would be more than ideal for sure. She heaved a heavy sigh against him. After a moment, Steve started to almost sway a bit, taking her with him.

“Why is the decision so hard?” he asked.

This was the tricky part. Sure, she had kicked her feet a bit at the first question but it was easy to answer. This one … this one was deeper.

“It’s complicated,” she said instead, knowing he wouldn’t buy that.

And he didn’t. “Come on. You can do better than that.”

Another big sigh. This time it took her a bit to gather her courage — it helped that she could hide her face in his chest. “It’s my fault he’s gone,” she whispered.

Steve took a moment before he asked, “Why would you say that?”

Toni simply shrugged. “It all comes back to me. Ultron, the Scarlet Witch, Bruce’s visions. If you trace it back, the fault comes back to me.”

At that, he pulled back, cupping her face as he had become a custom to doing. Her head tilted up to meet his gaze. It was the serious “I’m Captain America, you better listen to me” look.

“Toni, Bruce leaving is not your fault. It was a set of circumstances that led him to make a choice,” he said adamantly. “You cannot choose for Bruce, nor did you. You can’t take on that burden.”

Her lips pursed, “But…”

Steve shook his head, “Toni, I know you want to think you are the center of the world, but in this regard, you aren’t, honey.”

Her eyes went wide at the statement, and then, before she realized it, a watery chuckle escaped her. It made Steve smile, and after all, that was better than anything else.

“You need to accept that you aren’t always affecting everything that happens, Toni,” he continued, brushing her loose hair back behind her ear. “Things happen, people make decisions. I can guarantee that eight times out of 10, you have no bearing in it.”

“Only eight?” she tried to joke, her voice catching on the number.

“Maybe even nine,” Steve ventured, causing another teary, soft laugh to escape her.

Toni fell against him again, and he welcomed her back in his arms, squeezing her tightly for a brief moment. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable, but as was her nature, Toni’s brain refused to shut the hell up. Gazing around the lab made her breath hiccup and her eyes water.

It was at that moment she felt a shift in Steve. Not anything bad, but she could tell there was something he wanted to broach with her. After taking a moment to feel a bit of pride that she was learning him as much as he was learning her, Toni pulled back to look into his face. While his features were a blank canvas, his eyes were pensive.

“What is it?” she asked softly.

“Huh?” he asked, as if she was pulling him from a trance or a dream.

Toni pulled back a little more, not completely putting distance between them, but enough so she could see him; really see him. This was new for her. Things had still been in a semi-crisis mode for the team since Sokovia, so Steve had constantly been occupied. It hit Toni rather hard in that moment that if he wasn’t solving problems with Fury, then Steve was concentrating on keeping Toni from a mental breakdown.

He probably rarely had a moment to think of himself or deal with what was going on in his own head. That bugged her. _A lot._

“I realize,” she started slowly as his eyes seemed to come back and focus on the moment, “that you’ve been pretty neglected in this relationship.”

Steve slowly raised one eyebrow curiously, “Relationship, huh? That’s a big step for you, Stark.”

Toni punched his arm just because she could get away with it, “Look, I get that I’m a time and mental suck. I’m a fucking mess you’ve been working to keep together. And while I really suck major balls — don’t snort, you aren’t a teenager — at being there for other people, I don’t want that to continue with you.”

When he didn’t say anything, Toni felt herself withdraw as embarrassment crept in but she pushed through. She looked down at his chest, avoiding his eyes. “You mean a lot to me, you know. And I realize that means I have to be there for you just like you’re there for me. I just have to warn you, I’m probably really going to be bad at it for a while.”

The last part came rushing out of her mouth so fast, she wondered if he understood it at all.

Toni wasn’t sure what she was expecting from him in response. Part of her — that stupid selfish part she was trying to kick to the curb — bristled at the fact he hadn’t immediately acknowledged this huge step for her. But the feeling melted into the beginnings of a panic. She had said too much, or worse, she said it wrong, probably upsetting him further…

Steve took a long, deep breath, not only breaking the silence, but drawing her attention back to him and away from her thoughts.

“You’re not as bad as you think, Toni,” he said softly, his hands going back to rubbing up and down along her spine in a comforting gesture.

Toni pursed her lips at the response and gently pushed against his chest as she met his gaze again. “Stop deflecting. Something happened in that moment, your mood shifted.” She paused and made herself take a deep breath. “If it’s something you’re not quite ready to share with the class, I won’t push. But a street goes both ways, Steve.”

The statement made him smile, albeit ruefully. He took a moment to clench his jaw and Toni watched as a thousand thoughts crossed his mind, the process playing out in his face and eyes. Finally, after what she was a fucking lifetime, Steve reached forward and tucked hair behind her ear again. His eyes followed the movement of his fingers as they curved around her ear.

She watched him intently the whole time, almost holding her breath.

“I guess I just realized you love Bruce,” he said softly.

Toni blinked and before she could fucking stop herself, she replied, “Well … yeah. How could I not?”

She wanted to immediately slap a hand over her mouth. Did she seriously just do that? Did she fucking pigeon-hole them into a stupid Twilight love triangle twist? No, no, fuck no….

Another deep breath and a decisive nod from Steve, “Do you … do you want to find him? We can get Fury to get us resources to search for a signal on the QuinJet…”

“Whoa, whoa, wait,” Toni interrupted him, now stepping out of his embrace because he did not just …. “Did you just Han Solo me?”

Steve opened his mouth and then closed it again, that adorable confused look coming across his face as he cocked his head a bit to the side. “Han Solo?”

Toni couldn’t roll her eyes at the question because it was Steve but also because she had never been in this situation where a Harrison Ford character was concerned.

“Star Wars!” she blurted instead. “In Jedi, after the Death Star explodes into smithereens?”

He still looked lost. Now she did roll her eyes.

“Han thinks Luke is dead but Leia says she knows he’s alive because she can feel it. And Han being a stupid man —” and to make her point and also help her feel better, she took a moment to once again punch Steve in the arm — “asks Leia if she loves Luke. Which she says she does, because they are brother and sister!”

“I’m completely lost,” Steve said with no shame. Even though he should have felt a massive amount of it. “Star Wars is on my list but I haven’t gotten to it yet.”

Toni sighed in a dramatic way she really couldn’t help, “Han loves Leia and because he assumes she loves Luke in a more-than-sibling way, he tells her he’ll step out of the way so they can be together.”

Just looking at him, she knew he heard what she was saying. But still, he was a man…

“Toni, it’s … I understand. You have feelings for Bruce,” he said, looking like he’d just been kicked when he was already down.

Toni pursed her lips before she cupped his face and made him look at her. “Yes, I do. In fact I can say without doubt I love him.”

It hurt to see his face fall even more as his hands circled her wrists and he tried to pull away from her. But she held fast.

“Did you hear anything I just said?” she asked a bit sternly.

Steve’s brow knitted together in annoyance. “Yeah, I heard you say you love another man…”

Toni rolled her eyes, “I love him, you dolt, because he’s my brother. Or like a brother anyway.”

Steve pursed his lips at that, becoming quiet as the anger began to leave his face. “Ah. Han Solo. I see.”

Toni smiled ruefully as she nodded, fingers tracing along his jaw as her eyes ducked down and followed the path. “He’s the other half of my brain, Steve. When I was stuck, he found the way out. Bruce knew my plans for projects without having to go through the arduous details. We’re Science Bros.”

“But you…” At this she had to pause as she swallowed hard. She wasn’t totally ready to admit all of this to his face yet. His chest would have to do. “You’re the other half of my heart. God, that sounds so fucking inadequately cheesy…”

“No,” he interrupted, thumbs caressing her wrists where his palms still sat. “No it actually doesn’t.”

She pulled in a deep breath, still not finding her courage. “Well, then there it is.”

Steve tugged her closer so that she lost her footing enough to fall against him. “No, I think there’s more.”

Toni gave an exasperated sigh as she looked up at him, “Well of course there is more.”

“So then say it.”

No joking tone there. Just straight forward. And almost wanting, she thought. Really it was only fair she be completely honest with him. Steve always was honest with her. Plus it wasn’t as if she _didn’t_ want to tell him … it just wasn’t easy.

“I am horrible with words,” she lamented, feeling her face pull in a sour way.

“You’re better than you think,” he coaxed softly. “And I have faith in you.”

That had her heart skipping. Toni stared at him for what felt like an eternity, his blue eyes promising her something she’d always wanted but never had the guts to voice aloud…

“You’re the other half of my heart because you know me,” she started suddenly, hearing her voice and not readily recognizing it. “After all of this, you’ve given me exactly what I needed without me knowing I needed it.”

“You make my heart full. I feel something for you I have never felt before, Steve, and I never want to let it go,” she whispered.

Toni was fairly proud of herself for maintaining eye contact with him. Part of her, however, wasn’t sure it was the best idea because she couldn’t quite tell how he was taking it. After an excruciating 30 damn seconds, she felt her resolve crumble and she started to look away.

But Steve pulled her closer again and pressed his mouth against hers. It was easy to just melt into him and let him take control. She didn’t have to think with him … damn, that was another thing she should have said.

Because for Toni to stop thinking was a feat. And Steve had a unique ability to make her brain completely short-circuit. He had a few methods — kissing was one of the best, if she had to pick. Kind of like the way he was kissing her now. That felt really good.

He carefully walked her back until she was pushed against the nearest table. Her hands reached back to move the stacks of papers and notebooks to the side — they weren’t barbarians for fuck’s sake — as Steve wrapped his arms around her and pulled her up to sit on the table.

Now that she was eye-level with him, Toni pulled back and framed his face with her hands so he would look her in the eye.

“I could never have enough time with you, you know,” she blurted again, wondering what in the hell it was about him that made her say all these things … and then again, not really caring why she did.

She watched as Steve’s eyes softened, the lust fading a bit to something deeper. “I feel that about you too, Toni,” he whispered, his large hands slowly running up and down her back.

Toni felt her emotions welling up so fast, climbing up her chest. “Sometimes I … sometimes I still can’t believe this is real.”

His mouth turned down a bit at that as he brought one hand up to caress her cheek, “Why would you think this isn’t real?”

She swallowed hard as her eyes blurred with tears, “Because it doesn’t seem possible.” She gulped as her hands dropped and she picked at the threads on his shirt. “Real love, that stuff that moves you to your core, it doesn’t happen right? It’s for movie scripts and Hallmark cards and cheap romance novels,” she said. “There’s no way …”

Steve took hold of one of her hands in both of his, bringing it up to his lips, along with her gaze. He gently pressed his mouth to the inside of her palm, “It doesn’t get any more real than this right here, Toni,” he said, voice soft yet full of conviction. “I feel so certain of what is between us, I know it’s the realest thing in the world.”

And that was it, right there.

 _I love you_ , flitted through Toni’s mind and she opened her mouth to say it. But fear stopped her.

Instead, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him to her, kissing him with all that turbulent, sweeping feelings rushing through her veins. Steve didn’t hesitate; one arm wrapping securely around her as the other brought her legs around his waist.

It was nothing for him to turn, walking them both out of the lab and into the elevator near by. Steve pressed her against the back wall, one hand reaching out to hit the button for the living quarters above them. Toni was okay letting him handle that while she gripped his shoulders and kissed him hard.

“Toni,” he moaned in her ear when she shifted against him, her center grinding into him in just the right place.

Toni had her lips pressed against his jaw line, dragging a path up toward his ear. Once again, those three words came to her lips and she suppressed them. They meant a lot, those three words, and she needed him to know she meant it when she said it, not think she was swept up in the lust and feeling of his hard body against hers.

Finally the damn elevator, which had suddenly became the slowest fucking thing on the planet, came to a stop and the doors slid open. Steve’s arms enveloped her again and carried Toni off to her bed. After the last couple weeks, she knew he could follow the path blind.

Once in her bedroom, he tossed her onto her bed, the pillows flying off and covers letting out a whoosh of air under her weight. She laughed, reaching down to undo her jeans as he began tugging them from her body. And he was smiling … so brilliantly and lovely that it made her heart swell to the point she thought it might burst.

Steve pulled his shirt over his head at Toni’s insistent tugging, chuckling softly as he did so. He tossed it away, making her laugh again, and leaned over her, kissing her soundly. Toni felt something in her release as her body slowly wrapped around his, pulling him down to her.

Things slowed, as they did with Steve — Toni felt things deeper with him, felt herself calm down enough to take in all the details, all the sensations. He took her out of her mind. Instead of all the inevitable bad, she only registered his hands on her body, his lips along her neck and on her mouth, the sheer pleasure and sensation of being complete when he was inside her.

It was hours later, as the inky blue skies of New York started to glow brighter, when Toni’s eyes fluttered open and she came back to reality. She knew Steve was awake by his breathing, his chest rising and falling under her head. She stretched a bit, her limbs feeling heavy in a good way, as his one hand rubbed up and down her spine. Toni stared out her large glass windows, taking in a pretty stunning skyline before she turned to look up at him.

Steve smiled softly at her, his hand tucking her unruly hair back in that endearing way of his. “Hi there,” he said softly, his voice a bit rough.

Toni rested her chin on his bare chest and smiled lazily at him. This definitely was a better view than the windows. “Hey,” she replied, her voice just as rough.

“How do you feel?” Standard question when it came to her, but on this particular morning, she didn’t feel an offense to it.

Instead she smirked, “You always ask that after you give me some pretty damn good orgasms. And I promise, the answer is never gonna change, Rogers.”

He laughed, the sound rumbling through his broad chest, “Cut a guy some slack. My ego is fragile you know.”

“Ha, right. There’s not a fragile thing on you and we both know it,” she teased, her fingers flitting up his side. He wasn’t even ticklish. Asshole.

Steve pursed his lips together and rolled his eyes, grabbing her hand and bringing it up to his mouth. They both grew quiet as he began to kiss each of Toni’s finger tips. She watched him, her heart catching. Then, she pulled in a deep, content breath.

“I think I love you.”

Her heart stopped. Seriously, completely, full on fucking stopped.

That was her voice. That was the voice of Toni fucking goddamn Stark and it just told Steve amazing wonderful Rogers that she thinks she loved him.

 _Shit_ , she thought, eyes going wide. _Shit, shit, shit_.

Steve’s eyes had gone wide as well, his hand still holding hers. He shifted slightly, moving to sit up more and looking like he was going to say something she wasn’t going to like. So Toni attempted to cut him off at the pass.

With panicked rambling.

“Oh God, that was the worst way to say that. I didn’t mean it,” she sat up and slapped a hand to her forehead. “No, I didn’t mean _that_. What I mean to say now is that I totally fucked that up because I’m not supposed to tell you that I _think_ I love you. I should know for sure and say that, because saying you think you love someone is just a fucking dick move and I’m trying really hard to avoid those kinds of moves now and …”

Steve sat up all the way and grabbed her wrists, playfully tugging her back on top of him. The move effectively ended her rambling as she fell onto him with an undignified “oomph!”

Toni looked up at him, feeling a bit worried, “Steve, I’m …”

But he silenced her again, pressing his hand over her mouth. “Toni, take a deep breath.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. But he didn’t budge, tucking his chin and giving her the slightest of smiles. “Deep breath.”

Toni rolled her eyes and pulled in a deep breath as he instructed.

“Good. Now, I’m going to remove my hand but you have to promise to let me talk and not to interrupt me,” Steve said in that steady commanding tone.

She contemplated his offer.

“You and I both know you will crack eventually, so you might as well just agree now,” he teased.

Again, she rolled her eyes. He was right of course. Add in the fact her heart was about to pound out of her chest and she had no Plan B. Toni looked at him seriously and nodded. Steve slowly moved his hand, slipping his fingers into her hair.

“Please do not panic about how you expressed your feelings,” he said with a soft smile. “I know you, Toni Stark. I know sometimes that brain to mouth filter doesn’t work.”

“Thanks,” she said in a huff, shifting against him and turning her face away.

“Hey,” Steve’s voice was steady as he cupped her chin and turned her face back to him. “Listen carefully to me, okay?”

Toni swallowed hard. Whatever he was going to say, she could handle it.

“I think I love you too.”

His words washed over her and that part of her brain which had emerged through all the negative started squealing loudly. _He loves you, he looooooooves you!_

“You do?” It sounded stupid to her ears, but Toni knew she had to ask. Irrational as it was, she needed him to verify she hadn’t just hallucinated it.

Steve sat up, bringing her with him. His hands cupped her face and he pulled her in for a kiss that had goosebumps running up and down her arms.

When he pulled back, he brushed his fingers along the line of her jaw, “Does that answer your question?”

She laughed a bit breathlessly, finally opening her eyes to see the gorgeous smile on his face, “Yeah, that’s clears things up a bit.”

And then because she could, she kissed him again. This time when they pulled apart, Toni looked into his eyes. “You know … I know I love you. No ‘think.’ It’s a very resounding know,” she whispered.

He nodded, that bright smile still curling his lips as his fingers carded through her hair, “I know. I love you too.”

At that remark, she smirked at him, “That’s good, because I need to tell you I want to build something.”

Steve visibly tensing actually made her laugh because seriously, he could be too cute for words. She let him stew in it for a moment, before she patted his shoulder, “Don’t worry, babe. It’s just an idea for a new Avengers facility outside of the city. Upstate for some privacy, you know,” she explained.

He narrowed his eyes a bit, which only caused Toni to laugh again. “Hey, you wanted me to tell you about new projects,” she pointed out.

His face broke at that, a chuckle escaping him as he wrapped his arms around her. Pulling her in close, Steve fell back into the mattress, bringing her with him.

“You got me there, Stark,” he said. Then after a moment of silence, “You want to scout out some properties on Wednesday?”

Toni snuggled against him, a smile still curling her lips. “Yeah. Wednesday would be great.”


End file.
